Straight From The Heart
by Higuchimon
Summary: [3/3, complete, Roxas x Sora/Sora x Roxas] It's nearing Valentine's Day and Sora has a little problem: he's in love with Roxas.
1. Valentine Choices

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the characters presented here and am not making any profit off of this whatsoever.  
**Story Title:** Straight From The Heart  
**Chapter Title:** Valentine Choices  
**Rated:** PG-13  
**Story Word Count:** 3,892  
**Chapter Word Count:** 3,892  
**Romance:** Sora x Roxas  
**Notes:** I wrote this for the Kingdom Hearts Exchange Project and since permission has been given to reveal, I'm posting this and thus...revealing that I wrote it. It was written for remi_chan and I hope everyone likes it. This takes place after the ending of Kingdom Hearts II. Comments and criticism gratefully accepted.  
**Summary:** It's nearing Valentine's Day and Sora has a little problem: he's in love with Roxas.

* * *

Valentine's Day was just over a week away. Sora tried, but it was almost impossible for him to dredge up any real enthusiasm for it, even though Kairi was, as always, happy about the approaching holiday. It was the first time that it had passed since they'd all returned to Destiny Islands, and every time a new 'first' passed, she'd been absolutely thrilled they could share it again. He could understand that, he _shared_ that, but there still remained the fact he wasn't looking forward to this as much as she was.

**What's to look forward to?** he heard Roxas's voice clearly in his mind. They didn't speak all that often, but Sora never lost sight of the fact that his Nobody was still there with him, and probably always would be. There was something quite comforting about that, in an entirely different way than the fact he'd always have Riku and Kairi was.

_It's Valentine's Day next week,_ Sora told him silently. After the first few times of people staring at him when he spoke to Roxas out loud, he had learned to keep his mouth shut. His friends didn't mind, but when his parents had begun to talk quietly of having him go see a friend of theirs, he'd decided discretion was the better part of valor.

There was some confusion from the other side of the bond that linked them together, and Sora elaborated. _It's about love and romance and all of that._

**Oh.** Roxas, Sora thought, understood it a little. **So why aren't you looking forward to it? Don't you like Kairi?**

Tact had never quite been the other's strong suit. In fact, it really wasn't either of theirs, so Sora couldn't be that surprised by it. _I guess. I don't know anymore._ The thought of being back with her and Riku had been a wonderful dream to hold close to his heart, and seeing so many of his friends being so happy on his journeys had inclined his thoughts in certain directions, but now, he just wasn't all that sure anymore.

Roxas made a sort of noncommittal noise in the back of their mind. **Are you going to do anything about it?**

That was a really, really good question, and Sora had absolutely no idea of how to answer it. What _could_ he do? He'd always gotten Kairi candy for the holiday before everything that had happened. Now that didn't even begin to raise his interest, and he still couldn't figure out why.

He stared out at the ocean in front of him, kicking his feet a little in the water. Maybe he'd go for a swim and see if that could clear up his mind a little. It would at least give him something else to think about than what to do about Kairi and Valentine's Day and all the rest of it.

A quick glance down to the water showed him his own reflection, which suddenly rippled and altered a little. When it firmed again, it was Roxas who looked up at him from the surface of the water. **Let me do the swimming,** he suggested, his voice still a whisper in the back of Sora's mind.

Well, there wasn't anything wrong with it. In the months since their return, he'd done what he could to give Roxas at least some time to do whatever it was that he wanted to do. Roxas appreciated it, whether he said so or not. Sora didn't think he had to, since he already knew. They were somewhat of the same person, after all.

_Sure,_ he said at last. Kicking back in his own little section of their mind could help him clear things up as easily as swimming could. And their body would still be doing the swimming anyway. Details made little difference.

There was a kind of internal shuffle, and then he wasn't in charge of his body anymore. He could feel Roxas stretching, then stripping himself down, but tried not to look. It was silly, since it was his own body and he knew what it looked like, but he still didn't look. There _were_ differences between the two of them, physically, after all, so it was almost like watching someone else take their clothes off.

Of course trying not to look and not looking were two different things, and Sora noticed almost right away that Roxas had scars that he didn't. Potions and Cure spells fixed a lot of damage, but some things left scars no matter what.

_What's that?_ he asked without thinking about it, his attention drawn to a long, slightly puckered scar on Roxas's left side. Whatever had done it had been sharp and jagged, and the scar itself looked a bit different from most scars.

**Chakram. Axel got me there when we were training once,** Roxas said it casually. Sora wondered at times how much that his Nobody remembered about being in the Organization. He didn't really want to ask, not sure if those were good memories or not.

He did wince, thinking of how much that had to have hurt. _Oh. Yeah, he was kind of tough._ That had to have come from both of their memories, since he hadn't ever fought against Axel himself. Fought beside him once, but that was all.

Roxas said nothing about it, but cut forward into the water as if he were a dolphin, or a merman. Sora relaxed the best that he could and went back to thinking about what he was going to do, or not do, about Valentine's Day.

Once he got down to it, he didn't really want to get Kairi anything other than the usual friendship chocolates he'd always gotten her. He wasn't sure what she wanted, but that was what _he_ wanted. So, that was settled. Sort of.

_I wonder…_ Sora's attention drifted briefly back to where Roxas was swimming easily. He swam a bit differently than Sora himself did, since Sora's style was influenced by his time in Atlantica.

**You wonder what?** Roxas asked him, not missing so much as a stroke. Sora mentally flushed, glad that Roxas couldn't see that at the moment, and that if he felt it anyway, he wasn't saying anything about it.

_Uh, did you learn how to swim or did you already know?_ Sora grabbed for the first thought on his mind. He knew that Roxas knew how to do a lot of things just because of being his Nobody, but was this one of them?

**Demyx taught me,** Roxas said casually, turning over to float on his back and stare up at the crystal blue skies. **We sort of got along most of the time. It was different than it was with Axel, though.**

Sora had to admit he'd never had the best opinion of Demyx. When he'd fought the Organization, he'd expected fierce and unrepentant soldiers who would never back down, much less run away in fear from something. But hearing about something so simple was unusual, to say the least.

It wasn't something he was sure he wanted to think about, much less talk about. He pulled himself a little away, sending a general thought of wanting to think more about the Valentine's Day situation so Roxas wouldn't think he was avoiding him. He wasn't, either. It was just that he wanted to think about _Roxas_ at the same time, and having Roxas be aware of what he was thinking was more than a little unnerving.

This had to be some of the strangest thoughts he'd ever had. This was about _Roxas_, his Nobody, the other half of himself, and Valentine's Day. He shouldn't be thinking things like that. The fact it was another guy wasn't that big of a problem to him. After all the traveling he'd done, he couldn't bring himself to be bothered by it. But being Roxas, himself but not himself…_that_ had to be wrong.

And as much as he wanted to, he couldn't be bothered by that, either. It brought up problems, since he could scarcely keep the fact he hated his mother's cooking away from Roxas, much less something like this. And for that matter, how could you get away from someone who lived in your own body with you if the relationship didn't work out?

Now there he was thinking about having a relationship with Roxas! This was crazy, and he'd seen crazy before! It just didn't usually involve a reflection of himself.

**Sora,** Roxas's thought came probing at him gently. **Riku's here.**

That was all he needed to say. Roxas never stuck around that much when Riku was there. He didn't know why, since he'd never asked either of them. It just hadn't occurred to him. There was too much else that he had to do most of the time, ranging from his homework to just keeping himself in shape. You never knew when someone was going to come roaring through wanting to take over the worlds, and there were still the lesser Heartless and Nobodies to fight off now and then.

Another sort of ripple and shift, and then he blinked his eyes, shaking his head some to clear the mental fuzz that tended to accompany him when he took his body back. He looked around, and saw his silver-haired friend standing a few feet away, up to his waist in water, looking at him with a touch of concern.

"Everything all right?" Riku asked as soon as Sora met his eyes. Sora nodded without a bit of hesitation. "You sure?"

"Yeah." He shrugged casually and checked things out a little more. They weren't that far from the shore, so he guessed that Roxas must have swum closer in when Riku had shown up. "Just trying to figure out what to do for Kairi next week."

Riku grinned a little and what could've been tension went out of him as he did so. "So, what are you going to get her?"

Well, he might as well tell someone, and Riku was a good choice. He wouldn't argue with him about it. But he wasn't going to tell him about anything else. Not today, anyway. "Just what I usually do."

Riku blinked a few times, his eyes narrowing just a little bit. "You sure?"

"I'm sure. She's my best friend, just like you are," Sora said it firmly, meaning it. "That's all."

Again his friend looked at him, then he slowly nodded. "If you're sure." Then he grinned. "So, want to have a little race?" He motioned to a small mossy islet, barely big enough to qualify even being called that, that jutted out of the water a few hundred yards away. "Just to there and back again. That's all. Are you up for it?"

Oh, yeah, that was Riku. They pushed each other to be better every time they saw each other. Sora's answer was to leap forward, his legs pressed together as if they were a tail, and he moved through the water almost as quickly as he had when he was a merboy. Riku swam in a more traditional style, but just as quickly as Sora.

They were neck and neck for most of the way, even with Sora's brief head start. Sora enjoyed the movement, since just as he'd hoped, it gave him something else to think about. Roxas's time swimming had helped a little, but now, putting his own body to work, but it had more brought into focus something that had been growing bit by bit ever since he'd become aware of Roxas in the first place.

Hiding it from Roxas, trying to decide on what to do, if anything _could_ be done…Sora laughed to himself. And he'd thought he'd had problems when he was out saving the worlds!

* * *

Three days of thinking whenever he could sneak it in hadn't given Sora too many fresh ideas. Especially since heavily thinking about something that wasn't some kind of battle plan wasn't really something he was very good at it. He could do it, he was slowly finding, but being able to do something and being good at weren't exactly the same thing.

Maybe, he considered, he should ask Kairi and Riku about it. They'd been able to help him every other time that he'd needed it, so why should this be any different?

"You want to do what?" Riku stared at him as if he'd lost his mind. Or declared that Xemnas was his new best friend. Whichever was stranger. "Are you nuts?"

"Well, I don't think so," Sora laughed some and rubbed the back of his head and grinned a little. There wasn't much else he could think of to add to that, though, so he looked over at Kairi for her response. That was a bit of a surprise.

She was staring down at the sandy beach they stood on, and while he wasn't quite able to see all of her face, he thought she looked a little sad. _Oh, man. I didn't want to hurt her._ Maybe asking them both had been a bad idea?

Then she looked up, and there was nothing but bright joy there, joy that was all for him. "You know, that's kind of romantic in a way," she declared. "Two halves of the same soul."

"It's weird is what it is," Riku muttered, but there was no real heat to his words. Sora knew they'd both support him, even if they couldn't find a way to help him.

At least he was reasonably sure that Roxas wasn't listening in. He could usually tell when he was, and he thought right now that Roxas was taking a nap. That was good, he could maybe get something figured out without having to worry his Nobody would find out ahead of time. He'd always hated surprises getting spoiled, and he thought Roxas would be about the same way.

"Well, if this is what Sora wants, then we're going to make sure he gets it!" Kairi declared, shooting Riku a slightly annoyed, but amused, look. Then she looked back at Sora. "Have you had any ideas yet?"

Sora drooped slightly. That was the big problem. "Nothing that, you know, really _works_. I mean, what can I get him, anyway?"

"Good question," Riku agreed thoughtfully, running his hands through the sand. "What can you get a Nobody who's already been reunited with his heart?"

Kairi toyed a bit with a stick, drawing aimless designs on the beach. "What about a way to be whole…on his own?" she said after a few minutes, staring at nothing in particular. "Without having to be part of Sora, I mean."

Both Riku and Sora turned to look at her, and Sora blinked several times in deep confusion. "That isn't possible…" He looked back at Riku, who had spent more time around DiZ and Mickey and might know more about it. "Is it?"

"It's not supposed to be," Riku said after thinking a few minutes, during which both of his friends had alternated between staring at him and staring at each other. Sora kept as careful a watch on his own thoughts as he could, _really_ not wanting Roxas to pick up on any of this. "But you and Roxas…you're not like most Nobodies and their Others. And DiZ didn't know everything there was to know about them."

Sora caught his breath a little. Maybe there _was_ a way. "But that still doesn't tell us how," he tried to be practical, even though he wasn't good at it, and sagged down some. "Maybe I should just get him some really good milk chocolate or something like that."

Kairi patted him on the shoulder reassuringly. "If you believe in something, it can happen, right?" The sentiment was a little thick on that, but Sora knew she meant it. And it was kind of right, wasn't it? Everything they'd been through had proven it.

"You know, if you really do want to get him something good for Valentine's Day," Riku said a little thoughtfully, "I might have an idea."

Sora glanced over at him. "Huh?" he asked ever so eloquently. It wasn't as if Riku were the most romantic guy that had ever lived, so what was he going to have in mind?

"Well, we've got the Gummi Ship that Mickey left us," Riku said slowly, looking at the other two with a hint of amusement. The King's letter, after they'd returned from fighting Xemnas, had given them the use of a Gummi Ship and suggested that they keep an eye on the worlds when they had a chance. There were still Heartless and Nobodies around, though not to the degree that there had been when the Organization was in control of them, and the Keyblade was still the only weapon that could really do that much damage to them. They generally stuck to exploring and traveling on the weekends or whenever they didn't have school, not wanting to worry their parents all that much by vanishing otherwise. "Why don't we go where all of this comes from?"

Well, that was pretty cryptic. "What are you talking about?" Sora wanted to know. He couldn't remember any world that had to do with Valentine's Day! And he really didn't want to talk to any of his other friends about this, not right now!

Riku rolled his eyes and thwacked Sora's arms playfully. "Halloween Town isn't the _only_ holiday world, remember?"

Then it clicked in Sora's mind, and he all but squealed. "Right! There's got to be a way to get to…to Valentine's Day Town from there!"

**Sora?** Roxas's voice came into his mind. **What's going on?** There was the faintest hint of sleepiness, so his idea that his Nobody was taking a nap had to have been right.

_We're going to Halloween Town!_ Sora declared, too happy to conceal the chance from Roxas anymore. Surprises were one thing, but this was different! _And then we're going to find Valentine's Day Town!_

Definite confusion overwhelmed the sleepiness. **But I thought you weren't going to get Kairi anything special for that.**

_I'm not._ Sora mentally grinned and got up. He wanted to see Roxas's face for this, so he wandered down to the shoreline and stared down into the water until he _could_ see it. _I'm getting **you** something for it._

Roxas wasn't surprised very often. He did better with emotional reactions now that he and Sora were united, and now Sora could see the shock and confusion evident in the Nobody's expression. **You're going what?**

"I'm getting _you_ something for Valentine's Day!" Sora didn't bother thinking the words to Roxas. Kairi and Riku knew about him, after all. Then he hesitated for a second. "You don't mind, do you?"

This was plainly something Roxas had never had to deal with before. **I've never…no one's ever given me something for that before.** He made an obvious effort to come to grips with something. **No. I don't mind.** There was a little smile there suddenly, and Sora was warmed from the inside out. Was that because of Roxas? He thought it might be. **Thank you, Sora.**

"No problem at all!" Sora declared happily. "I don't know what I'll get you yet, but I'm going to make sure you like it."

**I know you will.** Roxas replied, and there was the faintest tinge of a real smile on the edges of his lips. Sora grinned back at him. He couldn't quite remember ever having been this happy in his life before. About the only thing he could imagine that would make him happier would be if there really _was_ some way for Roxas to have a full body and full heart of his very own.

He wondered what it would be like to kiss Roxas. He'd never kissed anyone before, and kind of wondered just what it would be like to do so in general. Maybe someday, somehow, he and Roxas could find out together.

"Hey, Sora!" Riku called over to him, and Sora looked up, breaking the connection with Roxas's semi-reflected eyes. When he glanced back, what he saw stretched out before him was just the usual image of himself on the water. _I wish you could stay around more._

Before Roxas could respond, Riku had splashed over to Sora. "It's getting late," he said. "We're going to have to talk to our parents about going." He rolled his eyes at that, and Sora couldn't blame him. After everything they'd went through, to ask their parents if they could leave couldn't help but feel more than a little silly. They'd saved the worlds. Twice over. And they still had to ask if they were going to be leaving home for more than a couple of hours. After all, there was no way to tell just how long they'd be gone for, and they couldn't even leave until the weekend anyway.

"Right, right," Sora nodded and stretched some. "Might as well get it over with."

The three of them headed back into town together, chattering a little about anything and everything. Or to be precise, Sora and Kairi chattered, while Riku listened and made the occasional sarcastic and amused comment if something caught his attention. That was the way conversations with the three of them usually went. Sora found himself wondering what it would be like if Roxas could join them like this somehow. Would the two of them talk all the time to each other, leaving Riku and Kairi by themselves?

No, he couldn't bring himself to believe that. They would be four, not three, that was all. He did wonder how he'd explain Roxas's appearance to everyone around town, if it ever did happen. He didn't think that 'this used to be my Nobody, but now he's a real person and we're sort of dating' was going to go over all that well. For the most part, the people of Destiny Islands still didn't know that much about other worlds. Sora had seen a few travelers that had to be from places he'd seen before on his journeys, but they didn't advertise that sort of thing either. Destiny Islands liked to keep to itself for the most part.

"Want to stop for some ice cream?" Kairi suggested, waving a hand towards the ice cream shop. It sold a lot more than that, but since that was the usual stock in trade, that was what virtually everyone referred to it as. Sora had a suspicion that this place was part of Scrooge McDuck's ice cream chain, since it sold sea salt ice cream, but he'd never seen anything official on the matter. It didn't make a difference, though. Ice cream _did_ sound good.

That was one of the best parts of living on Destiny Islands. The weather made it almost perfect for ice cream no matter what part of the year it was.

Before long, all three of them were seated in the shop and devoured their ice cream contentedly. Riku had his usual fudge ripple, while Kairi enjoyed a tasty strawberry confection. Sora, of course, had sea salt, and Roxas was aware enough in his mind so it was almost as if they were eating it together. Vague flickers of the gang from Twilight Town went through his mind, and Sora could pick up on that. They had been false images, but the friendship shared was real enough, at least on Roxas's side of things. And Sora was pretty certain if Roxas had ever met the real ones, then they would have all been friends as well. Their reactions when he'd met them had proven that to him.

He sighed happily as he kept on licking. Maybe one day, he and Roxas would have the chance to find out if that were true.

**To Be Continued**


	2. Valentine Visit

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the characters presented here and am not making any profit off of this whatsoever.  
**Story Title:** Straight From The Heart  
**Chapter Title:** Valentine Visit  
**Rated:** PG-13  
**Story Word Count:** 7,854  
**Chapter Word Count:** 3,962  
**Romance:** Sora x Roxas  
**Notes:** I wrote this for the Kingdom Hearts Exchange Project and since permission has been given to reveal, I'm posting this and thus...revealing that I wrote it. It was written for remi_chan and I hope everyone likes it. This takes place after the ending of Kingdom Hearts II. Comments and criticism gratefully accepted.  
**Summary:** It's nearing Valentine's Day and Sora has a little problem: he's in love with Roxas.

* * *

"All right, is everyone ready to go?" Sora asked, glancing around the Gummi Ship. Unlike his other trips, he'd actually gotten a chance to pack first. Not that he was bringing much other than the various potions and other things that they might need if they ran into Heartless or Nobodies. He had put back on the clothes that Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather had given him when he'd started out the last time, for much the same reason he was bringing the potions: just in case.

Kairi, on the other hand, had a bag that looked to his inexperienced eye as if she'd packed half of her wardrobe in it. He wondered if it were a girl thing of some kind. He'd never lost track of the fact that she _was_ one, but sometimes it was just more evident than others. This was going to be one of them, he thought. He hoped she wouldn't go too crazy once they got to Valentine's Day Town. Girls could be like that around the holiday, he'd noticed before.

Riku was as simply dressed as he usually was, and if Sora hadn't known better, he would've thought that his friend had only planned a casual stroll to the other side of the island, instead of an expedition to another world altogether. Riku traveled light, obviously.

All three of them had their Keyblades, of course, though they weren't visible to the naked eye. Sora still had no idea of where the blades were when they weren't holding them, but that didn't really matter, as long as they were there when they were needed. Kairi wasn't as good as either of them were in a fight just yet, but they'd been working on teaching her as much as they could. She could at least handle some of the lesser Heartless, which could make a fight a bit easier on them. That was Riku's assessment anyway, and Sora agreed with it.

"Yeah, we're ready," Riku said as he leaped up into the ship. Their parents had, thankfully, not given them that much trouble. That might possibly have had something to do with the fact Sora hadn't exactly told them that he wanted to find the best gift he possibly could for the Nobody they didn't quite believe existed. "What was it you told them, anyway, Sora?"

Sora flashed a quick grin at his friend. "I told them we were going to Valentine's Day Town so I could find the best present I could for the people who are the most important to me." At Riku's look, he shrugged. "I bet I'll find something for you guys, too. So I wasn't lying!"

"Sora, you are impossible," Kairi laughed as she joined them on the ship. "But I think we are all ready to go."

"So let's go!" Sora dropped himself into the driver's seat and started up the engines. Before all that long, Destiny Islands had dropped away beneath them, and space itself folded around them, taking them to the realm between the worlds.

"How long is this going to take?" Kairi wondered as she peered out the window. She'd done a little Gummi ship traveling with them, but it was always something fresh and new. Besides, they'd never been to Halloween Town or the environs before.

"A couple of days, I think. It's hard to figure out time between the worlds, you know," Sora told her as he set the course and the ship started to move.

**Sora.** Roxas's voice echoed slightly in his mind. **Are you sure this is something you want to do?**

_Hey, if I can't get you your own body, at least I can get you something,_ Sora settled back in his chair and concentrated on talking with his other half. _I know it's the thought that counts, but still…_

Roxas grunted something that Sora couldn't quite make out and wasn't sure if he really wanted to. **How are you even going to get it to me?**

_That won't be too hard._ Sora mentally shrugged. All he'd really need to do was leave it where Roxas could get to it and then let his Nobody take over for a bit. He still didn't know what it was going to be, but maybe whoever it was that ran Valentine's Day Town could help him figure it out.

**This is crazy, you know.** There wasn't quite as much conviction behind the words as Sora might have expected. **You're crazy. How can you…or we…** The words were a bit disjointed, but Sora could figure out what they meant anyway.

_I've done a lot of crazy things. Why shouldn't we be able to do this?_ Sora's logic was unassailable. In his mind, anyway, and that was what mattered as far as he was concerned.

He didn't quite shiver when he felt Roxas a little closer to him, like he'd been when they had eaten the sea salt ice cream, but he did imagine what it would feel like to touch Roxas's hand. He could almost _feel_ it in more than his imagination, that slightly cool skin, as hardened as his own from fighting, with the faint pulse of life that vibrated in time with his own, and was there something that was a cool brush of breath across his face? He didn't want to open his eyes and _not_ see Roxas, so he kept them closed and saw him as hard as he could, in real, breathing reality of the mind. Roxas was all but staring at him, he thought, and he moved forward just the smallest bit, and he could feel Roxas's lips so close to his own, and all it would take was just another moment, when…

"Sora, watch out!" Riku's voice shattered his fantasy, and his eyes flew open to see they were a bare moment or two away from crashing into the heart of an asteroid field. He grabbed for the controls and got them out of there as fast as possible, a thin trickle of sweat going down his back as he did. "Talk to Roxas when we're _not_ trying to get through a place that could kill us if you blink wrong, okay?"

Sora plainly felt Roxas rolling his eyes at Riku and ducked his head some. "Sorry about that."

Riku gave him a look as he settled back into his own seat and then turned to stare out the window. Sora kept his own attention on trying to get them through everything in one piece. Even with the pathways between the worlds open, there was still quite a bit of danger in traveling like this.

**The dark corridors are open still,** Roxas mused in his head. **I haven't tried to get to them, though.**

Sora shuddered just at the thought of that. _I think I'll pass._ He knew that you didn't have to be evil to use them. Riku and King Mickey had proven that. But they still sent a chill down his spine.

**They're not that hard, really. But I don't know if I could anymore.** Roxas was a bit practical-sounding about it. **And now's probably not a good time to try, anyway.**

_No kidding._ Sora shuddered again, and hoped that neither Riku nor Kairi would ask him what he was shuddering about. He stared at the path ahead of them, and tried to figure out how long it would really take them. A couple of days was his best guess, but he wanted something more definite than that. And it gave him something else to think about.

**Do you really want to kiss me?** Roxas asked suddenly, and Sora was glad that he didn't jump too high just then. At least he could blame it on a passing meteor if he had to.

_Yeah,_ was his reply, and he was fairly certain there was a blush somewhere on his cheeks at that. Saying that he 'really really really' liked Roxas just didn't convey it all the way he wanted it to. He didn't know what would, if anything. _Do you want to?_ It wasn't the most elegant way of asking, but Sora was a teenager as well as the Keyblade Master. Inelegancy was permitted.

As the moments slid by and there was no answer, Sora bit his lip a little nervously. Maybe he'd asked too soon. Or he shouldn't have asked at all.

**Yes.** Roxas said it quietly but firmly. **I do, Sora.** His fingers weren't solid, but Sora could feel them wrapping around his hands regardless. He squeezed just the tiniest bit, not enough for anyone who might have been watching to notice, but _he_ knew, and Roxas knew, and that was enough for the both of them.

Sora did manage to keep himself focused on driving the Gummi Ship until Riku declared he'd done it long enough and now _he_ was going to take over for a while. "You get some sleep," Riku told him, nudging at him with a foot. "Or whatever."

Sora opened his mouth to ask what Riku meant by that, but a sharp look from the silver-haired wielder told him this one time, it might be better to be quiet. So he went off to where he usually laid down for rest on the longer trips and curled into a comfortable position.

He'd barely been there for five whole minutes before he was sound asleep, and standing in front of Roxas. Both of them stared at each other, but it was Sora who moved first. He leaned in, pulled Roxas closer to him, and did what he hadn't been able to bring himself to do with anyone, not Riku, not Kairi, and no one else.

He kissed him. Sora kissed Roxas.

It wasn't the most wonderful kiss in the world. Noses bumped and it was more than a little sloppy on both their parts, and Sora wasn't sure just what to do with his tongue, and he didn't think Roxas had the first idea of what to do with his either. But they both managed to at least get a reasonable kiss done, and Sora knew he was grinning like an idiot when they broke apart.

"That…was weird," Roxas said at last. "People do that a lot when they…uh…" He trailed off, but Sora knew what he meant by it.

"Yeah. I've seen people doing it before." His parents did it a lot, and he'd seen Will and Elizabeth, and Belle and the Beast, and lots of his other friends. He was sort of breaking new ground doing this with a guy, but someone had to do that, right?

Roxas nodded a little slowly, but didn't move too far away from Sora. Sora glanced around a bit, trying to figure out where they were. There wasn't much around them here, and what there was looked like a mixture of his own bedroom, the beach, the Usual Spot at Twilight Town, and parts of what he thought might've been the World That Never Was. "So…what is all of this?" he asked, more for a lack of anything else to talk about at the moment. He supposed he could've brought up something about where they were going and why, but they'd covered that for the most part anyway.

"I'm not even sure. I stay here when I'm not up there," he waved a hand above to what was a mixture of clear blue sky and thick rain clouds. "I think it's sort of everywhere I've been."

Sora nodded again and started to look around. Then he looked back at Roxas. "Uh, this is going to sound really stupid, but…want to go for a walk?" He knew how dumb it was. Not only was he actually asleep, but they were inside of his mind or Roxas's mind or dreaming. At any rate, they weren't where you could usually take a walk.

Roxas looked back at him, and then smiled, just a tiny bit, but all the more precious for that alone. "Yeah. Sure. Why not?"

And as surprised as Sora was by the fact he'd asked and Roxas had accepted, he was even more surprised by himself a few seconds later, when he reached for Roxas's hand, and found Roxas reaching back for him.

* * *

To be honest, Sora had expected Cupid, the leader of Valentine's Day town, to look much like he did on all the greeting cards: a cute little cherub about two feet tall. Which was why he just kept on staring and couldn't quite get his brain and mouth to actually work together for over a full minute.

Cupid, to put it bluntly, was hot. _Smoking_ hot. He was a bit over six feet tall, with curly blond hair, warm blue eyes, and his every feature was perfect, flawless, and divine. He was dressed casually, in slacks and a sweater that fit him like a glove, and the way he moved drew the eye, no matter what. When he smiled, Sora had never felt so warm or loved by _anyone_ before.

"So nice to meet you at last," he said, and his voice was as gorgeous as the rest of him. "Sora. Riku. Kairi."

"You know us?" Riku's eyes narrowed briefly, but Cupid only waved a languid hand.

"I've spoken with Santa Claus and Jack Skellington about you all. We don't usually speak to each other; keeping charge of our particular holidays takes up most of our time. But I've also seen you, Sora, near some people I keep an eye on. So I wanted to know more about you." He leaned forward, sky-blue eyes all but glowing. "So, you've fallen in love with your Nobody."

Sora flushed a deep shade of red, and Cupid grinned briefly at him. "It is unusual, I'll say. But you three make a habit of that from what I've heard. And I _do_ understand love. It's my specialty, after all. So…you want something special. Unique, I'm sure. Something that will really show how you feel to him…and maybe to everyone else?" He raised one eyebrow in the most perfect arc possible, and Sora wondered if he could get anymore red and managed to nod. "Well. I suggest you go visit the Marketplace, and see what you can find there that calls to your heart." He raised a finger at the sudden look on Sora's face. "No one can make that kind of decision for you. You have to pick it for yourself. A true gift comes straight from the heart. You know that, right?"

"Yeah…" Sora managed to work out the word, and he was certain that he could hear Roxas laughing in the depths of his mind. They'd went on mind-walks whenever he'd slept on the trip there, and every time he woke up, his determination for this to succeed had grown by greater and greater leaps and bounds.

Cupid nodded slightly, then motioned them out of his temple-like home. "The Marketplace is down the road and to your left," he said. "Keep an eye out for trouble, too."

"Heartless?" Sora snapped himself into business mode. "Are they around?"

"Some. Not as many as there used to be, but some do crop up now and then," Cupid toyed briefly with the tip of an arrow, and Sora wondered when he'd brought it out. "My arrows don't work on them, but we've managed to get them to leave Valentine's Day Town sometimes. But just watch out. You never know what could happen when you let your heart be your guide."

Kairi was as red as Sora himself as they left the temple and started down the road that Cupid had indicated. "He's…he's…" Words failed her and she flailed helplessly at the air in an attempt to convey what was on her mind. "He's…so…"

"Yeah," Sora nodded slowly in agreement. Riku just shrugged, as unaffected as he always was by everything.

"I wonder why he doesn't look like he does on the cards," the silver-haired wielder wondered a bit distantly. "Santa Claus does, after all." He didn't appear to be bothered by the fact there was one, despite what he'd said when he was younger. Sora reminded himself to take the time to tease him about it soon.

"He used to," a voice came from ahead of them, which was revealed to come from a young blonde woman. Her eyes were very kind and her smile gentle as she waved at them. "But people were spending more time staring at the pictures than they were at their real sweethearts, so we came up with the cute little cherub look to stop distracting them."

"I can understand that," Kairi murmured, and the other woman laughed gently.

"I'm Psyche, Cupid's…assistant." The hesitance to the word made Sora wonder if that was all she was, but there were other things on his mind at the moment as well. "Is there anything that I can do to help you?"

"I don't know," Sora shook his head a bit. "I want to find something for someone really special, and Cupid said to check out the Marketplace."

"Good idea." Psyche agreed with a nod. "You never know what you'll find until you need it. Or start looking for it." She motioned them in the direction that Cupid had mentioned. "Good luck to you."

The Marketplace was as varied and strange as anything that Sora had ever seen in all his travels. There were places to find food, most of it with some kind of sweet or Valentine theme to it, and places for armor and weapons and potions, just like in every other place he'd been. He thought he even saw a Moogle stand. There were places to buy perfume and jewelry and cards and books and anything that he'd ever thought of that could be remotely connected to Valentine's Day, and a lot of things that he hadn't ever considered at all.

"Whoa…" Kairi breathed out what was on his mind only for a moment before she leaped forward, tugging on both of their arms, and headed towards a stand with a light in her eyes they'd only seen when she was eyeing a sale at the mall.

**How are you going to find what you're looking for if you're with her?** Roxas wondered. Sora mentally glared at him.

_You're not supposed to be looking. This is a present for you. A surprise!_

**I live in your mind, Sora. How can I not know what it is? Besides, how are you going to know if I like it if I'm not here?**

Sora wanted to grump and pout some more, but even as he started to do so, something caught his eye from across the Marketplace square. He tugged his hand away from Kairi, who didn't even notice as far as he could tell, and headed over there.

The stall held many lovely items of jewelry, earrings, rings, bracelets, necklaces, and so many others. Sora had never seen so many in one place before. The stall owner smiled at him warmly as he came up.

"Looking for something for someone special, are you?" she asked, brushing her hair back with one hand. "I can always tell." At his incredulous look, she laughed gently. "The way you came over here instead of staying with your friends, dear boy. It's nothing to it. Now, what do you think your sweetheart would like?" She waved a hand at the display and Sora bent over to take a better look at it all.

**Nothing.** Roxas almost sounded disappointed as Sora looked over each tray. Nothing there was anything less than beautiful, but nothing grabbed him at all. Either of them, really. Sora sighed, and was about to give up when a loud shout came from the far side of the Marketplace: where Riku and Kairi were.

Before Sora could move, the stall owner shrieked as well and backed quickly away. The Keyblade Master turned in the direction she was looking at, and the Keyblade was in his hand a moment later. There was a small collection of Heartless there, turning over stalls and scattering everything that was in their path. A quick look towards where he'd heard the first cry showed that there was another pack of them there, but he could hear grunts and thuds that also told him Riku and Kairi were on the job.

**Which means this is for us!** There wasn't quite a hint of bloodthirstiness in Roxas's mind-voice but it was close, and Sora didn't argue with it right now.

After all, right now, he felt the exact same way.

With a fierce and angered cry, built up of frustration and anger at having had the search for the perfect gift interrupted, he threw himself towards the Heartless, Keyblade leading the way. He struck first into a Neoshadow, a furious growl on his lips, and hit over and over until it vanished. That was just the beginning. Every time a Heartless presented itself, he attacked, scarcely taking time to breathe, and hardly feeling as if he needed it.

When it was finally over, Sora looked around slowly. Roxas was slowly withdrawing from the uppermost parts of his mind, where he always was when they fought together. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. "Everyone all right?" he asked.

"We're all right," the stall owner he'd been speaking to before answered. "What about you?"

"I'm fine." Sora shook his head, then started away. He had to find Kairi and Riku and make certain they were all right.

Before he could get too far, the stall owner stopped him, her hand held out. "This is for you. For everything you did." She opened her hand, and Sora's eyes widened at the sight of a keychain there, shaped like a heart.

**Yes.** Roxas's reply was only one word, but it meant everything to Sora as he stared down at it. Yes. This was it. This was what he'd been looking for. He didn't know what it could do or what to call it, but he _knew_.

"Thank you," he said softly as he took it. "Thank you very much, ma'am."

"It was my pleasure, for all that you did for us," she replied, then motioned him along. "You'll want to find your friends. Go on."

Sora nodded, tucking the keychain into a pocket, and hurried along. Roxas was doing everything but purr in his mind, and he was a little too worried about Kairi and Riku to wonder why just yet. All of the worrying faded when he saw the two of them, probably as tired as he was, but unhurt, and starting over towards him.

"You all right?" Riku asked, Way To The Dawn still in his hand. Sora nodded quickly.

"What about you guys?"

"Just fine." Kairi replied, stretching a little. Now that he was closer, he could see a couple of empty potion bottles on the ground, which meant they probably hadn't been unhurt, but at least they were fine now. There were a few scratches here and there on him as well, but he didn't worry about them.

He nodded some. "I've found what I was looking for." He hesitated for a moment as he realized something else. "It's almost Valentine's Day. Want to stay here until it's over with?"

Kairi and Riku glanced at each other, then back at him. "Sure," Riku answered. "There's no where we really need to be." School was going to be closed for a few days so the teachers could do something…teacher-y. None of them had really cared that much about the exact details, except that they got the time they wanted to be off on this quest. Their parents had only asked that they be back before school started up again, and Sora had promised that they would be.

As they started back to find some place they could stay until they were ready to leave, Sora fingered the keychain in his pocket. Whatever it was, whatever power that it held, he wanted to find out. Even if it was something as simple as just adding a little extra force to their attacks, that didn't matter. It was going to be his gift to Roxas, and that made it as special as it needed to be.

**To Be Continued**


	3. Valentine Victory

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the characters presented here and am not making any profit off of this whatsoever.  
**Story Title:** Straight From The Heart  
**Chapter Title:** Valentine Victory  
**Rated:** PG-13  
**Story Word Count:** 11,767  
**Chapter Word Count:** 3,913  
**Romance:** Sora x Roxas  
**Notes:** I wrote this for the Kingdom Hearts Exchange Project and since permission has been given to reveal, I'm posting this and thus...revealing that I wrote it. It was written for remi_chan and I hope everyone likes it. This takes place after the ending of Kingdom Hearts II. Comments and criticism gratefully accepted.  
**Summary:** It's nearing Valentine's Day and Sora has a little problem: he's in love with Roxas.

* * *

Valentine's Day Town had everything that could be included in a single thought of romance and love. That happened to include a beautiful beach, with plenty of room for long romantic walks or picnics or anything else someone might decide they wanted to do there. Riku and Kairi were doing other things, probably exploring, but Sora found himself wanting to spend a little time with his Nobody, and the beach was perfect for it. It _was_ Valentine's Day after all at last. He'd spent as much time with his two friends as he could until today had arrived, but now it was time for something else. For someone else.

**This is gorgeous,** Roxas thought as they walked by it. Well, Sora walked by it, and Roxas was there in his mind, so it was about the same thing. They were getting used to that. **I always used to want to go to the beach in Twilight Town.**

_Well, this is just as good, isn't it?_ Sora asked, bending down to scoop some sand and watch it filter through his fingers. His eyes unfocused for a moment, and there were two sets of hands there. He knew one was his and the other was Roxas's. And he wished that he could touch the other for real, feel their lips touch and so much more. If only there was some kind of a way…

Roxas's hands turned a little, and he could _almost_ feel them touching one another. **When do I get it?** The question was almost that of a child, and Sora had to laugh.

_All right. Now._ Sora reached inside with one hand as the vague image of Roxas's vanished, and drew the keychain out. With a flick of his hand, the Kingdom Key was there, and he stared at the two of them for a moment. Then he closed his eyes, let go, turned, and he could feel without knowing how that it was happening…

When he opened his eyes, he was in that same place that he went to when he dreamed, but there was no sign of Roxas. A faint mental brush told him his Nobody was still by the beach, with the Keyblade and keychain in his hands. Sora did his best to get a good view and waited. There was something strange about what was going on through Roxas's thoughts, but Sora couldn't get a good enough grip on them to be certain of just what it was.

Then Roxas hooked the new keychain to the Kingdom Key, and it glowed briefly, transforming itself. Now it was a deep rose color all over, with a softly intertwining design of hearts around the grip and down the blade itself. It _should_ have looked girlish. It didn't. It looked downright deadly. Both of them knew the name as soon as they saw it.

"Heart's Ease." It didn't matter who spoke the words. They both did. Or neither did.

Roxas brought it up a little and ran a finger down the edge. "A secret power lies within, but it can only come from the heart," he murmured other words that came from wherever the knowledge of what each Keyblade did was stored within them.

_Do you like it?_ Sora asked as he wondered just what kind of a secret power this could have. He'd left off asking about the whys and wherefore and hows of Keyblades months ago. He suspected he was better off not knowing some things.

"Yeah," Roxas replied, slicing the Keyblade through the air as he did so. "It's perfect, Sora. Thank you." The words felt a trifle rusty, as if Roxas weren't used to saying them, but they were meant sincerely.

A roar interrupted anything that might have been said before it could even be formed, and Roxas whirled, Heart's Ease raised at once, to face what had to be one of the largest Heartless he'd ever seen before. Sora, staring through his eyes, couldn't recall too many that were any larger. _Let me take care of it!_

"No," Roxas hissed between his teeth as he got into a battle stance. "You got to have all the fun earlier. Now it's _my_ turn." He didn't wait around for Sora to give permission, but flung himself forward.

The creature had to be a good fifteen feet tall, covered in thick black scales, and with long reddish-brown claws that struck swiftly at Roxas as he raced towards it. Two bat-like wings extended from its shoulders, and three baleful demonic green eyes burned on a face that belonged more in nightmares than in reality. It said nothing coherent, not that either of them expected it to, and swiped again as Roxas leaped over the attempted grab and struck straight for the face.

Sora, even though he wasn't quite participating in the fight, grunted as one of those claws made contact, knocking Roxas back and sending him sliding along the sand. Smaller Heartless leaped up, mostly Shadows, and Roxas burned through them with one fierce hit after another, driving his way back to the ringleader.

"You are not going to interrupt this!" The Nobody spat the words out as he leaped into the air and brought Heart's Ease down with crushing force on the Heartless's shoulder. Sora spied another opening as Roxas spun and struck and would have pointed it out if Roxas hadn't sent the blade crunching into it moments later. The lesser Heartless were scarcely a problem as he quickly crunched them into nothing, not even bothering to pick up what munny or other treasures they dropped. All that mattered was taking out the enemy.

_Roxas…_ Sora could feel something that he almost never did from Roxas: emotions. Even though Roxas had them since they were joined, his Nobody usually kept them tightly under wraps for reasons of his own. Now Sora could feel them: rage, fury, anger, wrath…and one that while he'd hoped and tasted the edges of, he hadn't really _felt_ until now.

Love. Simple, clean, pure, without a shadow of a doubt, love. Love for _him_. Not as a brother or a friend, not like what Sora himself felt for Riku or Kairi. But the kind of love that fired the very universe itself, according to all the romance writers.

The Heartless struck Roxas down again, this time sending him smashing into a tree, and the Nobody didn't move, and Sora couldn't feel his mind anymore, or his feelings, or anything else.

_**Roxas**_! Sora scarcely noticed that Heart's Ease was glowing faintly. It didn't matter. He wrenched himself forward, and for a moment there was some kind of weird disorientation, the likes of which he'd never felt when he took back his body from Roxas, but it didn't matter. What mattered was that he could see that Heartless ahead of him, and he growled, eyes flashing with a kind of anger and rage he'd never felt before.

"No! You're not going to take him from me!" Heart's Ease was in one hand, and Ultima was in the other, and he plunged into battle without a backwards glance at Roxas under the tree, only wanting this to be over with as quickly as possible. He struck again and again, pausing now and then to blast the Heartless with fire, with ice, or with thunder, whatever his mind and battle instincts threw at him.

Then he struck one final time, and as he landed firmly on his feet again, breathing hard, he saw the Heartless fading away into nothing. _Good riddance,_ he decided, not having been that content to defeat an enemy since Xemnas. He turned inside of himself, searching for Roxas. He had to be all right. _Roxas? Roxas? Are you all right?_ Without thinking of why, he repeated it out loud. "Roxas? Roxas?"

"Sora…" The voice was familiar, but he couldn't think right away of where he'd heard it from, or why it sounded just a little different than he was used to.

Then it clicked, and he turned to see Roxas pushing himself to his feet under the tree. Roxas rubbed the back of his head slowly as he turned towards Sora, and the two of them stared at each other. It wasn't quite the first time they'd met face to face, but it was the first when they'd known exactly what was going on and who they each were and with all of those emotions between them.

"Roxas." Sora all but breathed the word out, not believing his eyes. He still held the two Keyblades in his hand, but banished Ultima with a brief flick of his hand. Heart's Ease he kept, and stared down at it as if he'd never seen it before. Perhaps in a sense he hadn't. But he had never imagined what it could have done if he hadn't seen it for himself.

"Sora." Roxas took a couple of steps towards him, and started to totter, one hand reaching out nearly blindly to grab onto anything for support. Sora raced over there, and all but gasped as he actually held onto Roxas, not a vague image or memory or anything of that nature.

"You're real." Again, both of them said it. Sora stared at him again, not certain if he could ever get enough of doing so. He reached out tentatively, not sure where he wanted to start touching first, then his hand landed on Roxas's chest as if he'd meant to do so from the beginning.

It only took a few seconds for them both to realize what was going on under that hand: a steady heartbeat, as regular as Sora's own, thrummed under the skin. Roxas's eyes were full of shock, and Sora knew he had to look much the same way.

"I'm real," he whispered, and Sora pulled him closer, wrapping his arms around him. He _was_ real; Sora didn't know how, but Roxas was real, no longer a Nobody, someone who didn't exist.

"Was that…was it the Keyblade?" Sora murmured, staring down at it. Roxas's hand joined him on the hilt, and they both looked at it. "Could that be it's power?"

"I don't know," Roxas replied. "It's really strange, that's for sure." Sora had to agree. There was nothing else he could do. "Maybe it's something we don't need to think about that much?"

Sora nodded a little, then laughed. "What are we going to tell my parents? What about school? And everything else?"

"I'd rather we didn't think about that, either." Roxas smiled briefly, and for something he wasn't used to doing, Sora found it incredibly charming and sweet: so much so that he leaned over without thinking and kissed those smiling lips. Roxas kissed back, and it was every bit as good as either of them had ever dreamed that it could be.

Sora moved even closer, doing what he did best in any situation: following his instincts. His fingers brushed a bit across one of Roxas's cheeks and made a note that they should really spend some time in the sun together as soon as possible. Then he leaned in to kiss again.

But this time, before their lips could properly meet, two voices called from the direction of the road that led down from Valentine's Day Town itself to this beach. "Sora!" Riku called, with Kairi a quick echo. "We heard there was…whoa…" He stopped and stared. "Sora?"

"Hey, guys." Sora grinned at them and waved cheerfully. "I don't think you've ever really _met_ Roxas, have you? Come on and say hi!"

Riku took a few steps closer. "Sora, if you've been stabbing yourself with a Keyblade again…"

"No!" Sora shook his head quickly. "Nothing like that, Riku! Come on, we can tell you all about it." He grinned even more as they came closer, both staring at Roxas a bit uncertainly, and kept a tight grip on the other's hand. This was going to be really, really good.

* * *

Sora's hand was placed gently on Roxas's chest. Both of them liked being like that, with Roxas in Sora's arms for the ease of it. To feel Roxas's heart beating underneath Sora's hand…it was bliss for both of them. Ever since they'd made it back to Destiny Islands from Valentine's Day Town, they'd done this as much as they possibly could.

"They took it really well," Roxas said quietly, thinking of when he'd been introduced to Sora's parents for the first time. Sora nodded, his chin touching the top of Roxas's head as he did so. "But did you have to introduce me as 'the voice in my head who isn't just in my head anymore'?"

"Well, no, I don't think I had to," Sora mused teasingly. "But I wanted to. Mom and Dad still try to think I'm their little boy. I don't think they want to admit that I'm grown up. I've heard parents can be like that."

Roxas rolled his eyes. Sora couldn't quite see that from where he was sitting but he didn't need to in order to know it had just happened. "I don't think they're going to be thinking that anymore."

"Probably not." Sora tried not to laugh too hard, but did anyway. "Mom's probably still cleaning out the spare room for you." Both of them knew that it wouldn't be getting that much use. Even if they didn't _do_ anything for months or more, neither of them had any intentions of sleeping by themselves. They were simply too used to being one with each other even now.

There were still a lot of other things they had to figure out, but neither of them were in a huge rush for it. As far as Sora was concerned the best way to really deal with most of the upcoming questions was just to smile, nod, and let people make up their own minds. They'd probably never come up with the truth, and that was fine with him.

"We should go on a date," Sora said at last. That was a lot more interesting to him than anything else he could think of at the moment. Not that sitting by the ocean with Roxas wasn't awesome, but he wanted to _do_ something, the more active, the better. Or at least interesting. Interesting would do.

"Where to? And doing what?" Roxas had a vague idea of the general layout of Destiny Islands and what was on it, but it was Sora who knew the place inside and out. That was fine with him, too. He wanted to get to know it on his own terms.

"There's going to be a carnival this weekend," Sora said after thinking about it a few minutes. "Want to go there? Together?"

Roxas turned his head a little. "A carnival? Rides, games, bad food?"

"Yeah. Ever been to one?" Sora wondered. Roxas nodded a little, and Sora blinked. "Really?"

"Yeah. It was some mission or other. I can't remember where or what for anymore. It was kind of boring. Axel wound up setting fire to most of it and we watched people running all over the place trying to put it out." Roxas hunched just a little as he thought back to those days. "I also got a stomachache there. We don't have to get any cotton candy, do we?"

"Not if you don't want any." Sora reassured him. He kind of liked cotton candy himself though, so, "But I could eat yours for you if you wanted."

The former Nobody rolled his eyes. "No, thanks. I can't even stand the smell of it. Pretzels. That's what I want. Some good ones. And some…"

Before Roxas could say it, Sora did. "Sea salt ice cream!" The thought of sharing some of that with Roxas, in an entirely different fashion than they were used to, was very, very enticing indeed. He brushed his fingers a bit past Roxas's cheek and found that they were both smiling. "Right. We'll get pretzels and ice cream and go on rides and I'll win you a goldfish."

"I don't want a goldfish."

Sora shrugged easily. "Okay. I'll keep it for you and you can come visit it."

"I don't want to visit a goldfish, either."

"I'll keep it for you anyway." Sora was not going to be deterred. He would win his _boyfriend_ a goldfish!

"Besides, I'm going to be living down the hall," Roxas pointed out sensibly. "How would that be visiting?" He looked back at Sora again. "And it's not like I'll be that much out of your room when you're there."

Sora nodded brightly. "So he won't miss you!"

Roxas gave up. Sora laughed triumphantly at that, and dropped an impulsive kiss on his cheek. "You're impossible."

"So? Doing the impossible is part of my job," Sora pointed out. "Doing the impossible, being impossible, saving all the worlds, that kind of thing."

"That's not what I was talking about." Roxas tried to tell him, and Sora only grinned even more, and Roxas gave up all over again. What _could_ you do with that kind of attitude? Well, other than bury him in the backyard, which sounded just a bit too inviting at the moment.

Sora pulled himself to his feet and tugged Roxas up as well. "Speaking of ice cream, let's go have some. My treat."

"Of course it's going to be your treat. I don't have any munny yet," Roxas pointed out. He wondered if he were going to have to be the semi-sensible one in this relationship. That would be a little scary.

"Next time there's some Heartless giving us trouble, you can have whatever it is they drop," Sora promised. It was easier than an allowance and you didn't have to wash dishes or take out the trash to do it.

"Thanks." Roxas's voice was a touch dry at the thought, but he also wasn't going to argue about it. It _was_ better than an allowance. Even if risking your life wasn't the kind of thing most teenagers did to get spending money. "So, that ice cream?" If Sora were going to treat him, he wasn't going to argue about that, either.

Sora tugged him along until they were off the beach and going through the streets. Everywhere they went, he pointed out little landmarks and points of interest, places and people that he'd known growing up and would probably be able to remember ten seconds before he died, perfectly. Roxas did his best to take it all in, though he figured it would be years before he knew this place as well as Sora did. That was assuming he ever _did_ know it that well.

"A bowl of sea-salt ice cream!" Sora declared as soon as they walked into the ice cream shop. "Big enough for two, and a couple of sodas, too. All on me."

The clerk glanced at them both, and a faint smile hovered briefly about her lips as she got to work on delivering the order. Sora scarcely noticed as he found an empty table for himself and Roxas. There were other people there, and he waved to those he knew, which was most of them, of course. They waved back, to him and to Roxas both. Roxas eyed them a bit as he settled down into his seat.

"They're not going to get weird about us, are they?" he murmured briefly. "I've heard some worlds can be like that."

Sora just shrugged. "They aren't all, and there's lots of other places we could go if we had to." He didn't appear to be all that worried about it, and Roxas slowly relaxed and was even able to smile a bit cheerfully when the clerk brought their drinks and ice cream over to them. "Thanks!" Sora said once she'd set it down before them.

"You two have fun. Though I don't think I've met your friend, Sora. New in town?"

Sora grinned mischievously. "Kind of. He's been by before, but now he's going to be living with me. This is Roxas."

"Nice to meet you, Roxas. Hope you like Destiny Islands," the clerk said. "It's a really great place."

"That's what I've heard," Roxas managed to find his voice and reply to her. "I think I'm really going to love it here."

She nodded and waved as she headed back behind the counter, leaving them to enjoy their snack. Roxas nibbled on the ice cream and sipped at his drink, enjoying both of them more than he ever had before. That was probably because of Sora sitting across from him the way that he was. And because everything he was experiencing was real and not a lie to deceive him. Reality was so much sweeter than he'd ever imagined it could have been.

"When summer hits and we've got the time off from school, do you want to go to Twilight Town? See the gang?" Sora asked, trying and failing to get a bit of ice cream off of his nose. Roxas looked at that, highly amused, and reached over carefully with a napkin to take care of it for himself.

"Sounds good to me!" Roxas wiped the bit of ice cream off of Sora's nose, and would have followed it up with a bit of a kiss, if they weren't virtually in public. He really didn't think it had that much to do with people disapproving, but more with the fact he didn't want them to be watching when he did anything with Sora.

Even as each day clicked by and he woke up with Sora instead of inside of him, it was almost impossible for him to believe this was happening. According to Cupid, the power of Heart's Ease was to grant the deepest romantic wish of the bearer's heart, and since that was to have Roxas with his own body and heart, when Sora had used it to defeat that Heartless, that was what had happened. Sometimes he was almost afraid to go to sleep at night, for fear he'd wake up in the virtual Twilight Town or even in the World That Never Was, with all of this nothing but a fantastic dream.

"You're worried that this isn't real, aren't you?" Sora asked suddenly, and Roxas nodded without thinking about it. What couldn't he trust Sora with, after all? "Well, it is. Want me to prove it to you?"

Huh? Roxas has no idea of what Sora was talking about, but he nodded once again without giving a thought to the consequences. It was _Sora_. He loved him.

Of course he gave a bit of a second thought to that when Sora darted around the table and planted a firm kiss on his lips, one that very nearly sent Roxas sprawling on the floor. The first thought through his mind was that people were watching them, and probably laughing.

The second thought through his mind was that Sora was still not a very good kisser. Their noses bumped just as they had when they'd kissed in the inner world, and Roxas really didn't know what one was supposed to do with the tongue when they kissed. Also, what did you do with your eyes? Open or closed? Roxas closed them more to keep the sight of other people out than anything else.

When he felt Sora ease off a little, he cracked one eye, then opened both of them and sat up the best that he could. Sora looked at him with a simple and happy grin, and Roxas returned it, knowing they both looked like idiots and not caring.

"You believe it's real now?" Sora asked simply, eyes twinkling at his boyfriend. Roxas reached up to smack him lightly on the arm.

"No. Convince me some more."

It took Sora a long time to convince Roxas. But neither of them cared that much. Convincing was really too much fun. And it became a tradition that on Valentine's Day, Sora convinced Roxas of his reality in a grand style.

**The End**


End file.
